The holiday shopping rush — to the dismay of retail-working family members and Thanksgiving traditionalists — has taken a huge bite out of the ceremonial turkey dinner. As much as holiday conservatives have fought it, seasonal shopping begins before most families take the bird out of the oven.

To secure the bulk of doorbuster deals, you just have to take a slice of pumpkin pie to go.

The days of long lines that wrap around retail stores on Black Friday itself are predominantly over. Best Buy had one last year when it opened with a second set of doorbuster deals at 8 a.m the day after Thanksgiving, but the first wave for the electronics retail giant had come at 5 p.m. on the holiday. They’ve got the same plan this year, too.

Small clusters of shoppers gathered outside places like Westfield Sarasota Square and Staples for the crack of dawn Black Friday openings last year. There were and still are several players who keep their doors shut on the holiday. The plan worked well for employees and any shopper itching for those retailers’ first-in promotions, but the stores missed out on the kickoff hype. The competition in the wee hours was minimal because the crowds just weren’t there. This year Sarasota Square has switched back to a Thanksgiving Day opening.

Even though the crowds picked up midway through the afternoon on Friday, you’ve convinced me, Southwest Florida, that Black Friday in its traditional sense is dead.

And so I, like the bulk of the retail world, also will be working on Thanksgiving.

I’m going to start making my rounds around lunchtime, and I expect the most dedicated shoppers will have camped out well before then.

JCPenney is kicking off the openings this year at 3 p.m. and is offering coupons for the first people in the door, valued from $10 to $500. Those $500 coupons and the early opening could be enough for the department store to build on some of the momentum it’s recently had in the retail market. A lot of retailers have been hurting this year, but it’s been less so for JCPenney. In theory, a shopper could try for one of those $500 coupons and still nab a decent spot in line for a store with a 6 p.m. opening.

Best Buy, Macy’s and Toys “R” Us are all fighting for the 5 p.m. crowd.

Ellenton Premium Outlets, the Mall at University Town Center, Westfield Sarasota Square, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart and Bealls will all start their sales at 6 p.m.

While the chaos and the lines will likely be reserved for Thursday night, there are a number of retailers that are bucking the trend.

Southwest Florida may have slept in on Black Friday, but national data indicates it’s still the most popular shopping day of the year.

Many retailers opened as early as 5 or 6 a.m., but the streets in Sarasota and Manatee counties stayed quiet until well after sunup.

Still, Black Friday garnered $10.4 billion in sales, according to preliminary estimates fromShopperTrak. Even as Thanksgiving Day shopping hours creep closer to the traditional turkey dinner, the holiday still isn’t toppling Black Friday’s figures. This year, Thanksgiving Day brought in about $1.8 billion in retail sales, according to the data.

Both days saw a dip from last year’s figures when Black Friday brought in $11.6 billion and Thanksgiving garnered $2 billion. Even so, ShopperTrak expects a 2.4 percent increase in sales for brick-and-mortar retail during the 2015 holiday season.

So perhaps, there’s more shopping to be done, and local businesses haven’t shied away from embracing the season.

Ellenton Premium Outletswill have Santa roaming the food court on the next two Saturdays from 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. He’ll take pictures with shoppers and pass out small gifts to children who visit him. The mall will also offer a holiday photo booth nearSimon Guest Servicesfrom 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. every Saturday until Christmas.

Port Charlotte Town Centeris welcoming pets for photos with Santa from 6-8 p.m. on Dec. 13 and 20. Santa will also visit with children with special needs on Sunday from 8-10 a.m.

Applebee’shas called on Santa this Saturday from 8:30-10:30 a.m. to help raise money for the U.S. Marines Corps’ Toys for Tots program. The annual breakfast with Santa event features raffles, door prizes and the chance to take pictures with Santa. Seating is limited and advance tickets, which are priced at $10, are required.

Westfield Sarasota Squarehas teamed up with Face Autism for a Sensory Santa on from 9:30-11:30 in theMacy’scourt.

Speaking of Sarasota Square, we reported in October building permits for anA’GACIstore at the center were filed. Still no official confirmation from A’GACI or Westfield on a grand opening, but signage for the store is now hanging in the mall.

I caught a glimpse ofBest Buy‘s battle plan for the Thanksgiving shopping weekend.

The detailed lineup of staff members and duties neatly plotted on a store’s floor plan was even more impressive than the steadily building maze of televisions in the store.

They’re bracing for organized chaos. Consumers, too, have that same opportunity for efficiency.

Some experts say this will be the year for Black Friday bargains outside of the traditional doorbusters. A slow selling season in September and October has left many stores with a surplus of stale merchandise. If you’re not eager to spend your Thanksgiving shopping weekend hopscotching from store to store, you could save just as much money combing through racks in one place.

Or, you could mix it up a bit.

Retailers have taken a variety of approaches with opening their doors this holiday. A few are still playing a nice, cordial game of who can creep the closest to Thanksgiving dinner.

Kmartwins the Grinch award again, and will open on Thanksgiving Day by the time this newspaper lands on your doorstep.

JCPenny, too, is leaving shoppers just enough time to shovel down an early dinner before it opens its doors at 3 p.m.

Others, likeStaples, are waiting until 6 a.m. on Black Friday and encouraging shoppers and staff to spend time with their families.

For the extreme shoppers, though, scattering the opening hours really creates a few different opportunities to be the first in line.

In theory, you could start at Kmart, have an early turkey dinner and hit JCPenny at 3 p.m. Things get a little trickier around the dinner hour. Best Buy opens at 5 p.m. followed byBealls,Macy’s,Kohl’s,Sports Authority,Ellenton Premium Outletsand theMall at University Town Centerat 6 p.m. That leaves plenty of time for a nap or at least more coffee before the second wave of openings.

Personally, I plan to give my dinner a little more time to settle.

You can expect to see me before sunup waiting in line atWestfield Sarasota Squarefor the doors to open at 5 a.m.Westfield Southgatewill also open then. After a quick sweep through Sarasota Square, I’ll head north to the Staples on Beneva, which opens at 6 a.m. I can hit up Sports Authority, too, atPelican Plaza, before the second wind of shoppers arrives at Best Buy at 8 a.m. The technology superstore is giving its staff a 7-hour breather this year and shutting the doors temporarily at 1 a.m.

After that, it’s north toDeSoto Square Mall, which opens at 9 a.m. followed by a stop at Ellenton Premium Outlets to see how business is faring after more than 15 hours of shopping.

I’ll cap off my tour with a trip to the Mall at University Town Center, which will have just started its second wave of shopping at 8 a.m. The mall, too, is giving staff some time to regroup and closing up shop on Thanksgiving at midnight.

Whatever your plan of action may be, I wish you a safe and successful Black Friday.

And remember, if you see something off the charts, send me a tweet @MaggieMenderski.

Consumers have been hesitant to part with their cash this year and that’s expected to continue into the Christmas season.

Americans are expected to increase spending at a slower pace than last year. The National Retail Federation announced yesterday that it expects holiday spending will be up 3.7 percent to $630.5 billion. Last year, spending increased 4.1 percent in November and December.

The sluggish economy is likely still weighing on consumer’s minds.

The anticipated dip shouldn’t hurt seasonal hiring. Retailers are expected to hire between 700,000 and 750,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, according to the organization. That figure is in line with last year’s 714,000 new holiday positions.

Staples beat retailers to the Thanksgiving Day rush this year — by announcing they won’t be a part of it.

Rather than opening in the early evening on Thanksgiving Day as the office superstore has in the past, Staples brick-and-mortar stores will be closed for the entirety of the holiday. Anyone itching to buy office supplies may do so online, until Black Friday sales begin at the store at 6 a.m.

The chain was the first major retailer to release its Black Friday intentions. Typically, we don’t learn those until early November.

Staples certainly isn’t a pioneer on staying closed. Costco, Home Depot, Marshall’s and Dillard’s, among others, kept their doors shut last Thanksgiving. Menards ran a full-page ad promoting its “After Thanksgiving Sale,” which included a note to customers and employees encouraging them to spend the holiday with loved ones.

Meanwhile, Kmart made plans to open at 6 a.m. on “Black Thursday.” Kohl’s, Sears and Macy’s fought over the 6 p.m. crowd and J.C. Penney opened its doors at 5 p.m.

The Thanksgiving shopping season has taken enough heat in recent years to roast a turkey. As the sales continuously creep closer to dinnertime on Thanksgiving, emotions remain mixed. Some shoppers will gladly skip the pumpkin pie for a sale. Others feel for the workers who miss out on the time with their families.

Whether it means creeping into the actual holiday, some experts believe this year we’ll see a greater emphasis on spreading out the sales. That also appeared in the Staples announcement, which promised holiday savings beginning in early November and continuing throughout the season.

This move may be less about a family meal and more about practicality. Many retailers don’t have the in-house storage space to maintain the necessary inventory for a single day of intense shopping.

“What they’re trying to do is to spread that business out and to smooth it out, so you can have better inventory and better shopping experience,” said Steven Kirn, executive director of the David F. Miller Retailing Education and Research Center at the University of Florida.

Deals are actually intended to drive sales, which doesn’t happen when shoppers snatch an outrageously cheap TV and then bolt out the door, Kirn said. Keeping items on the floor and the staff needed to sell them has always been a problem. The mounting number of Black Friday injury videos on YouTube speaks for the safety aspect as well.

We saw the mentality shift last year with Walmart’s “the New Black Friday” that offered savings from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Florida as a whole welcomed the change in back-to-school shopping this year with a new law that extended the sales-tax holiday from a single weekend to 10 days.

Now that Staples has kicked off holiday announcements, I expect more will follow. The holidays really do seem to start earlier every year.

But if Publix can take online orders for a fully-cooked turkey this early, I suppose shoppers can start mapping out their weekend shopping plans as well.

The retailer announced this week that Black Friday wouldn’t be creeping into the traditional time for turkey and pumpkin pie. The brick-and-mortar stores will be closed during the holiday and stay that way until 6 a.m. on Black Friday.

The online store will remain open on Thanksgiving, so that consumers may shop from home.

Deals aren’t exclusive to the Black Friday rush. Beginning in early November stores will offer holiday savings on an assortment of the tech devices, office products and personalized gifts from Staples Copy and Print.

Locally Staples has locations in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice and University Park.

Online retail sales were up 13.9 percent during the holiday season in 2014, as compared to the same period last year, according to data collected by IBM Digital Analytics. Sales made on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, accounted for 22.6 percent of all online sales made during the 2014 holiday season. That’s an increase of 27.2 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Mobile online traffic accounted for 45 percent of all online retail traffic during the holiday season, IBM data shows, which is a 25.5 percent increase over the year prior.

“The biggest winner of the holidays this year is online sales, especially purchases made on mobile devices,” he said. “That is and will continue to be the fastest-growing area of retail for as far as the eye can see,” said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York.

Smartphones alone made up 31.2 percent of online traffic during the holidays. Tablets accounted for 13.4 percent of online traffic and 13.4 percent of actual sales. Smartphones only collected about 9.1 percent of total online sales.

Total holiday sales will not become clear until the Commerce Department releases its tally later this month, but one retailer already has surprised analysts.
Shares in J.C. Penney surged on Wednesday after the department store chain reported better-than-expected holiday sales.

The Plano, Texas-based retailer, which has struggled with its business model, said that for the nine-week period in November and December, comparable store sales rose 3.7 percent compared with the same 2013 period.
The company said it expects to report same-store sales in the fourth quarter at the high end of its projected 2 percent to 4 percent range.

“Our highest priority over the last year has been to restore profitable sales growth at J.C. Penney,” CEO Myron Ullman told investors in a statement. “Customers clearly responded to our combination of great merchandise and compelling promotions this holiday season.”

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.